Grow your business faster with machine learning: Part I

Marketers are increasingly turning to Google’s machine learning to meet consumer expectations and grow their business, faster. To learn more, read the first post in our three-part blog series on machine learning.Read the post.

We recently introduced a new version of the Ad Preview Tool that integrates ad diagnosis: instead of simply showing you a preview of the search results for a given keyword, the tool now also tells you if your ad is showing for that search. If not, you can see the reason why.

Now that you can preview and diagnose your ads in a single location, we’re retiring the separate Ads Diagnostic Tool and directing you to the Preview Tool instead. We’ll consolidate names too; you’ll see a single Ad Preview & Diagnosis tool under your account’s Reporting and Tools tab in the future.

Over the last several months, we’ve also worked to integrate diagnosis options directly into your Campaigns tab. If you’ve been using the Ads Diagnostic Tool option to diagnose many keywords at once, don’t worry -- you can find it without leaving your Keywords tab! Just click “Diagnose keywords...” under the “More actions” menu to get integrated diagnosis results directly on the page:

To interpret the distribution of results more quickly, click the “Filter results” link, then “Show diagnostic status” in the filter panel that opens. This will open additional filter options that are specific to the results returned by a diagnosis. Here, we’ve used filters to focus only on keywords that aren’t triggering ads due to budget, bid, or Quality Score issues:

As so many attendees reported finding our last Quality Score tutorial useful, we’ve decided to re-run the live course in the AdWords Online Classroom (UK) on Wednesday 2nd March for anyone who wasn't able to attend. The key to a successful AdWords account is the relevancy of your ads, keywords, and website. Having a better understanding of Quality Score can help you improve your AdWords performance.

This course will clarify what Quality Score is and provide useful tips on improving your Quality Scores so that you can further optimise your account.

The hour-long interactive course will be delivered by two AdWords Specialists as part of the Adwords Online Classroom (UK) and will include time for Q&A. It will take place on Wednesday 2nd March from 3 pm to 4 pm GMT (7 am to 8 am PST).

Today we're announcing the launch of a new ad rotation setting in AdWords that allows you to optimize for conversions. Previously, you had two options:

Optimize for clicks: Ads that are expected to provide more clicks are shown more often

Rotate: Ads are shown more evenly

Now, with a third option, you can choose to show ads that are expected to provide more conversions more often. We'll look at a combination of clickthrough rate and conversion rate to determine which ads to show.

We’ve always encouraged you to test multiple ads in each ad group, and we’ve offered our help by showing ads with the highest clickthrough rates more often. However, some of you have told us that the ad with the highest clickthrough rate isn’t always the ad with the highest conversion rate and that you’d like to be able to optimize for conversions rather than clicks. Starting today, we’re allowing you to do just that.

To use the new setting, you’ll need to have Conversion Tracking in your account, as we use the data from that tool to determine which ad is the most likely to receive conversions. When we don’t have enough data to make a decision, we’ll show the ad that is the most likely to receive clicks. If you have Conversion Tracking, the Optimize for conversions option will be available in the Ad delivery: Ad rotation, frequency capping section under Advanced settings on the Settings tab of any campaign. Once enabled, it will apply to all ads that appear on Google and our search and display partners’ sites.

By providing another way to define the “best-performing” ad, we hope to make it easier for you to experiment with your ads and learn which ones are the most successful in helping you reach your advertising goals. For more information on ad rotation settings, please visit our Help Center.

If you use managed placements to manage bidding or targeting on the Google Display Network, you might have at one point questioned why you saw three separate default bids in your ad groups: a regular default bid, a managed placements bid, and a Display Network bid.

We’ve heard feedback from advertisers that it’s confusing to work with these three default bids (and most of you don’t even use default bids for your managed placements--preferring to set bids individually). In an effort to simplify things, we’ll be removing the managed placements default bid starting on March 15, 2011.

After this change, you’ll be able to continue managing default values for both managed and automatic placements by using a single Display Network default bid. Individual bids for managed placements will allow you to maintain the flexibility you have today.

Here’s how this change will affect you:

Starting today, we're no longer allowing managed placement bids to be set for new ad groups containing placements. You won’t be required to enter a new bid when you add managed placements for the first time (we’re launching this change gradually, so it may take about a week to reach your account).

Starting on March 15, we’ll automatically update existing managed placement bids. There are several changes we’ll make in order to make sure your ads will continue to serve as normal with the bids you intended. Learn more about the changes that apply to your account in our Help Center.

If you’re eager to say goodbye to the managed placements bid today, you can do that too! You can change your managed placements bid to 0, which will cause it to disappear from your account (this change is also launching over the next week).

One important note: AdWords Editor 7.6 is not compatible with this change. Any changes to managed placements bids in this version of Editor will result in an error. Please make sure to download the latest version of AdWords Editor to manage your bids.

If these changes apply to your account, you’ll be receiving an email from us with additional details and will also see an announcement in your AdWords account. There’s no need to take any action in your account, but you can always feel free to adjust your bids at any time.

After its launch in all English-language AdWords accounts last year, Analyze Competition is now available in 8 more languages: French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese.

All Analyze Competition users also benefit from a new feature. You may remember that we blogged about the “see search terms” link in August of last year. Clicking the link allows you to see the search terms that triggered your ads for each of the most specific sub-categories in your account. Now, in addition to seeing these search terms, you can add them as keywords directly to the campaign and ad group of your choice -- making the data in Analyze Competition much more actionable.

We hope to add even more markets and features in the near future. To learn more about Analyze Competition, visit the Help Center, or watch this short video.

Back in December, we announced the limited release of AdWords automated rules, a new feature that lets you save time by scheduling automatic changes to your account based on criteria that you specify. Today we’re happy to announce that this feature is available in all accounts.

If you regularly log in to your account to pause or enable ads, adjust your bids, or perform other manual tasks, automated rules may be just the tool you need to manage your account more efficiently. For a step-by-step guide to creating an automated rule and best practices to get you started, visit the AdWords Help Center.

Keep in mind that when scheduling automatic rules, it’s important to check your work periodically to make sure your rules are having the desired impact on your account performance.

Once you’ve given automated rules a try, we want to hear about it! Share your feedback and ideas for improving automated rules by filling out this survey.

If you’re a small business, time can often feel like your most valuable and most constrained resource. While you’re doing everything you need to do to keep your business up and running, important tasks like AdWords account optimization can fall to the bottom of your to-do list.

Knowing that time is a key factor for all AdWords advertisers, we created the Opportunities tab to provide you with automated and customized keyword, bid, and budget ideas. Here are two stories of advertisers who used the Opportunities tab to find new keywords quickly and easily.

Fitness SinglesChris Mattioli founded Fitness Singles, a fitness-focused online dating website in 2003. With Chris’s dedication and some help from AdWords, he has grown his business to over one million global members today.

Like many small business owners, Chris wanted to improve his AdWords performance, but didn’t have a lot of time to work on his account. When Chris discovered the Opportunities tab, he knew it was a good fit for Fitness Singles, since it allowed him to uncover new keywords quickly and easily.

Chris scans the keyword ideas in the Opportunities tab regularly to find terms related to fitness, online dating, and singles. He’s found many ideas that are similar to the keyword combinations and variations that are in his account, but that he may have accidentally overlooked. He’s also found completely new relevant keywords to include in his campaigns. In one instance, Chris saw terms such as promotion code and coupon among his keyword ideas. From there, he decided to add a number of discount-based keywords to his campaigns. Chris says, “The Opportunities tab can often find new keywords that are relevant our ads and that don't currently exist in our account. It also helps you identify new keyword areas--even when you thought you had it covered.”

resortsandlodges.comRyan Bailey, President and Co-Founder of resortsandlodges.com, describes his company as a full-service agency rather than a travel directory. "We have a rapidly growing client base of two thousand-plus and a business model that gives our clients turnkey marketing and advertising support.” While part of a large company, VEMGlobal.com, resortsandlodges.com runs as a small business and keeps its operations small and scrappy.

On the site, you can 'book your spot' to save your travel information, plan your next trip, and moreclick for full size image

Like Fitness Singles, resortsandlodges.com uses the Opportunities tab to find new keyword ideas and save time. Ryan says, “The Opportunities tab provides high-quality keywords--and a lot of ideas we wouldn’t have thought of otherwise, which is the whole point! It’s great that you can easily scan through the ideas and find hidden jewels and then apply those insights for both keyword selection and site optimization.”

Mollie Moore, the company’s interactive marketing manager, also used the Opportunities tab to help with a website redesign project in March 2010. The previous version of resortsandlodges.com had dozens of links at the bottom of the page, and Moore was tasked with de-cluttering and limiting these links to the most important content. Looking at the number of keyword ideas associated with a particular theme as well as the traffic estimates for each keyword idea, the team learned that “the most effective content sections were top destinations, popular resort types, popular trips, and so forth,” says Moore. “We also used ideas from the Opportunities tab to build out our meta titles, descriptions and keywords embedded in the back-end of every page on the site. Using the Opportunities tab, we can reduce guesswork in determining the most effective content."

It’s no secret that today’s consumer is online more than ever before. In 2010, we conducted over sixty research studies with the help of partners such as Compete and OTX to better understand how consumers are utilizing the web--and to help you reach them! From all of this research, we learned some pretty cool facts. For example, did you know Google provides the most dating site search referrals1? Or that 25% of new vehicle buyers utilize the mobile web during their research process2? Neither did we. Watch this video to see some of the coolest (in our minds!) insights gleaned in 2010!

With over four billion mobile phone owners globally, half of all new Internet connections now come from mobile devices. This live course discusses the explosive growth in ownership and usage of high-end mobile phones and the implications for businesses and marketers.

We’ll highlight the main mobile trends that businesses should be aware of and outline effective mobile strategies and mobile advertising solutions for companies and advertising agencies to adopt.

The hour-long interactive course will be delivered by an Online Media Specialist and will include time for Q&A. It will take place on Wednesday, February 16th from 3 pm to 4 pm GMT (7 am to 8 am PST).

The rise of the mobile web is driving one of the most dramatic consumer behavior transformations in history. Billions of people are using their smartphones to search for information, consume news, watch videos, interact through social networks, and engage with advertising every day. So what does this mean for mobile marketing?

Tune in and find out what Mary Meeker, Partner at Kleiner Perkins, and Google’s Dennis Woodside, SVP of Americas Operations, and Jason Spero, Head of Americas Mobile Advertising, have to say about the future of mobile and what marketers can do to better connect with the mobilized, modern consumer.

The live stream will start on February 10, 2011, at 1:05 pm EST, and you’ll be able to watch from your desktop computer or mobile device. Please register for this virtual event by visiting the Think Mobile Live Stream page.

Following us on Twitter? Use the #thinkmobile hashtag as you're watching the event.

We're announcing the launch of our new Billing tab in the UK. Based on your feedback, we upgraded the tab to give you more control over when and how much you're charged with the new 'Make a payment' functionality. Those of you on automatic payments get charged whenever you reach your billing threshold on or after 30 days, but in addition to that, you can now make manual payments to delay the automatic charge. Although some of you already have the new Billing tab in your accounts, we'll be rolling it out to all advertisers in the coming months. The upgrade doesn't require any action from you - your billing method and form of payment will stay the same.

Now, on to the improvements. What can you expect from your updated Billing tab?

Get more control. Choose to initiate a payment to your account at any time and use any form of payment available with your country and currency settings.

Make payments directly from your billing summary page. You can do this by clicking the "Make a payment" button.

Switch between automatic and manual payments. You now have the option to use either one.

Add multiple forms of payments and switch between them. Add as many forms of payment as you want to your account and switch between using them at any time.

Use different business and billing addresses. Your business address doesn't have to match your billing address. Plus, each form of payment can have a different billing address.

Access improved help content. There will be improved help content in the new Billing tab and Help Centre.

In addition, the below changes in terminology will be reflected in your upgraded Billing tab. But keep in mind that despite the name changes, these billing methods will function the same as they did previously.

Postpay is now called "automatic payments." We'll automatically charge you only after your ads accrue costs.

Prepay is now called "manual payments." You can make payments to your account whenever and in whatever amount you like. Your ad costs draw from those funds.

Direct debit is now called "bank account." Your funds will be debited from your bank account.

Bank transfer is now called "funds transfer." You can make payments by transferring funds to Google's bank account.

This week's tutorial on the AdWords Online Classroom (UK) will cover all things bidding and budgeting-related to help you maximize return on your advertising spend and make the most of your AdWords account in 2011!

Are you getting the most out of your target market? Are you appearing on the first page of Google? Are you losing conversions due to budget? If you’re not sure then we’d highly recommend you tune in as we’ll be discussing impression share, first page bids and how to get the most out of your budget. We’ll also cover ‘Burst Strategy’, helping you to ‘burst’ through the auction at the right time, and how to ensure your account is structured for success.

This live course is presented by AdWords Specialists and is appropriate for all advertisers wanting to maximize return on ad spend. It will take place on Wednesday, February 9th, 3pm - 4pm GMT, 7am-8am PST.

We’re continually testing variations of our search results page to optimize performance for both you and our users. Similarly, you’re probably always trying to find ways to maximize each line of your ad to get your message across to users. To help, we’ll soon be making a change to certain ads that will allow you to display more information where it’s most likely to be noticed--in the headline.

Starting today and over the next few days, we’re changing the placement of the first description line for certain ads that appear above the search results on Google. For some ads where each line appears to be a distinct sentence and ends in the proper punctuation, description line 1 will be moved to the headline and separated by a hyphen. As a result, some top placement ads will have longer headlines. Here’s an example:

We’ve found that the change results in higher clickthrough rates for ads that are shown with the longer headline, as well as other top ads that appear beside them. It also creates a better experience for users by highlighting more information in the ad.

While only some ads will be shown with the longer headline, you can increase your chances by ensuring that each line of your ad appears to be a distinct sentence and ends in the proper punctuation (e.g., a period or a question mark). Since this is a global change, punctuation will vary by country.

When location extensions launched in AdWords in 2009, they allowed you to dynamically attach relevant business addresses to your ads. We’ve since experimented with different ways to integrate this information with a map.

Today, we’re introducing a way for your location extension-enabled ads to show directly on the map. We’ll be integrating information from ads with location extensions into the Place Search map on Google.com. On the map, your location will be marked with a distinctive blue pin.

With the new format, we expect potential customers to be able to find local businesses more easily. Rather than seeing multiple addresses and maps on the page, your customers can see all relevant, nearby locations in one place with quick links to get directions on Google Maps.

Your promoted business will appear in this new integrated format whenever we infer that a potential customer is looking for local information and your ad qualifies to appear above the search results.

For more information about location extensions, please visit the AdWords Help Center.

Starting today and over the coming weeks, we’ll be rolling out city targeting in 17 additional countries to help you reach more customers in local markets with your AdWords campaigns. With this expansion, city targeting will now be available to AdWords advertisers in 34 countries. In addition, we’re also announcing the ability to target regions in Argentina.

The countries with new city and region targeting options in AdWords are (click to see the full list):

Location targeting helps you tailor your ads towards specific markets, analyze your AdWords campaigns by market, and optimize your campaigns for higher return-on-investment. Now, you can go a level deeper and optimize the performance of your AdWords campaign at the city level. For example, let’s say you run a clothing company and have stores in several cities in Mexico. You conduct a campaign-level analysis and learn that you're getting more conversions from big cities such as Mexico City than rural areas. Here are a few steps that you can take to optimize your AdWords campaign:

Run a campaign targeting the best-performing cities such as Mexico City, and increase the bids on the keywords in that campaign to maximize your ad impressions in those cities.

Consider setting up a regionally- (or nationally-) targeted campaign with potentially lower bids on the same keywords to capture additional traffic from outside your top-performing cities at a lower cost.

Adjust bids accordingly to optimize for the highest campaign ROI.

We hope that with the expansion of city targeting, advertisers in more countries will be able to reach their local customers more effectively. Visit our Help Center to learn more about getting started with this feature.

Accountability is a core principle of AdWords. In order to improve advertisers' experience, we’re making changes to AdWords policies so that advertisers working with third-party partners understand how AdWords is performing for them and know what to expect from third parties. We believe that focusing on what's best for the advertiser is ultimately the best long-term course for third parties working with AdWords.

In July and December 2010, we communicated a number of changes to the way third parties should provide reports and information about AdWords to their clients, including a disclosure document that should be shared by all third parties that have 80 percent of their advertisers spending less than $1,000 per month.

Today we want to inform you that we’ve updated AdWords policies with a third-party policy section that includes above reporting and disclosure requirements. We’ve also clarified enforcement and non-compliance handling, as well as let advertisers know how to contact us if they have any complaints about third parties. See an overview of Google third-party programs.

We believe that most agencies, resellers and other third parties that sell AdWords already meet these policies and will need to make minimal or no changes to their systems. Proactive audits for selected third parties will start on April 1st 2011, although you are strongly encouraged to start complying with these requirements today. Note that we will continue to investigate any complaints and take appropriate actions.

We hope this provides third parties and advertisers with clarity on the policies AdWords third party partners must adhere to, and offers sufficient information on Google third party requirements. We believe that these new requirements will ensure that every advertiser that works with a third party partner understands their value and has a great experience.